Eye Prefer Paris Cooking Classes

Eye Prefer Paris teams up with Charlotte Puckette to give you an insider’s culinary tour of Paris. Charlotte, co-author of the bestseller The Ethnic Paris Cookbook, will teach students how to make classic French food, sometimes with an ethnic twist. Lunch classes start at 9:00 a.m. with a tour of a fresh food market, where we will shop for seasonal and sometimes exotic ingredients. Dinner classes start at 6:00 p.m. with a visit to rue Cler — one of the top food shop streets in Paris — where we will shop for a selection of cheeses and select a wine especially tailored for the meal.After shopping, we will go to Charlotte’s private townhouse minutes from the Eiffel Tower. She will discuss the menu over coffee (for lunch class) or a festive glass of Champagne (for dinner class), then you will get to work preparing a three-course feast. The class finishes with a delicious meal you cooked, accompanied by a cheese course and wine. Lunch class ends at approximately 2:30 p.m.; dinner class ends at around 10:00 p.m. Scroll down for sample menus and more about Richard and Charlotte.

LUNCH CLASS
Cost: 195 euros per person (about $220)Time: 9:00 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. (approximately 4 1/2 hours)Class days: Tuesday to SundayLocation: We will meet by a metro station close to the market

DINNER CLASS
Cost: 210 euros per person (about $240)Time: 6:00 – 10:00 p.m. (approximately 4 hours)Class days: Tuesday and Thursday, other nights by special requestLocation: We will meet by a metro station close to Charlotte’s home

About Richard and Charlotte

Richard Nahem was a chef, caterer, pastry chef, and chocolatier for over 25 years in New York City before he moved to Paris four years ago. He worked mostly in the fashion and design world preparing feasts for Vanity Fair, Elle, Vogue, Bergdorf Goodman, and Saks Fifth Ave. Celebrity clients included Madonna, Whitney Houston, Joan Rivers, Justin Timberlake and supermodels Cindy Crawford, Gisele, Naomi Campbell, and Lind Evangelista.

Charlotte Puckette, a graduate of Paris’s Le Cordon Bleu, is the co-author of The Ethnic Paris Cookbook, as well as a cooking instructor, food consultant, caterer and private chef. Having grown up eating shrimp and grits in her native Charleston, South Carolina, she arrived in Paris with limited culinary knowledge, unlimited curiosity and a very big appetite. “Oh, that looks good—wonder what it is? Maybe I should try it!” has been a constant refrain running through her head for over two decades as she has learned, taught, thought and written about food—and, of course, cooked it. Her appetite for ingredients takes her all over France to taste new and untried products and to meet the passionate chefs, artisans and farmers who produce them. She shares her enthusiasm for ingredients and French cuisine with a local and international clientele through her catering, market tours and cooking classes. Her wealth of knowledge and reputation led her to be sought out as a consultant for product development with several food companies in France.